2.5 year old night wakings....

[Nickie18]

My very cute and very spirited little girl has never been a great sleeper, but the last 2 weeks have been awful. night wakings every night. will not go back down unless we enter room and do what she asks. We have tried everything from CIO (which she then jumped out of her crib and pounded on the door until we came) to snuggling, sleeping in the room. She gets one nap a day in afternoon about 1.5 hours long that we cap. she has been on one nap for a year now. usually will not fall asleep until 8pm, wakes at 2-3 am and then at 6am (sometimes earlier). very fussy and short tempered...

Are NW common in 2 year olds?  What can I do?

[Scottishmummy]

Hi

I'm sorry you've not had any replies yet. Let's see if we can help...

There could be a couple of things going on for your DD. Although the developmental leaps/wonder weeks of baby-hood have finished, developmental leaps & disruption to routines around birthdays and half birthdays are common in toddlers..so it could be that.

I have found with my DS that the birthday & half birthday leaps also coincided with nap transitions. He completed 2-1 at 18mo, started 1-0 at 2.5yrs. So she could be starting the transition to 1 nap. Would you post her routine with timings? And have a look at this link: The 1-0 transition...Advice and Tips to help you through.

The other thing I would add is that if she won't settle to sleep, I'd suggest using walk in-walk out WI/WO as an alternative to CIO and a good halfway house between that and snuggling her to sleep or sleeping in her room. It's gentler than CIO & less likely to develop dependency than snuggling her to sleep & a good option if she was previously settling to sleep independently. More info here:
Toddlers: Walk In/Walk Out vs. The Gradual Withdrawal Method (HOW TO CHOOSE)

The other thing we do with my DS if he won't sleep and keeps coming out his room is we stop talking except to say "bedtime, good night" & just keep putting him back to his bed, again and again if necessary until he eventually realises there's no fun to be had staying up and goes to sleep.

Hope things improve soon & pls come back if you want to chat anything through more
Xxx